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Supercar
For other uses of Supercar see Supercar (Disambiguation) Supercar was a science-fiction television programme; it had a run of 39 episodes during 1961 and 1962. It was the first of Gerry Anderson's shows to be given the Supermarionation label. (However, it only acquired this label in the second season.) The programme centres around the Supercar, a vehicle versatile enough to travel to any environment. With Mike Mercury at the controls, the Supercar was used to carry out daring rescues. As with the later programme The Secret Service, Supercar was set in what was then the present day, specifically C.E. 1961. Inception After Granada failed to renew Gerry Anderson's previous programme, Four Feather Falls, for another season, Anderson went back to the drawing board. With the Space Age dawning, he thought a more futuristic theme to be the way to go. Teaming up with the writing duo of Martin and Hugh Woodhouse, who had previously written for Four Feather Falls, he set about laying the foundations for a series about a car that could go anywhere on earth and even above it. Thus Supercar was created. Production The brothers Woodhouse wrote 24 scripts in total for the series at a rate of 1 shooting script per week. Voice acting for the series was recorded on the weekends with around 4 episodes worth of dialogue being recorded per week. Once series 1 concluded, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson took it upon themselves to write the entirety of series 2 by themselves. All the subsequent Supermarionation shows were produced by ATV. Crew organisation In producing Supercar, Gerry Anderson and the former Sylvia Thamm began to organise the behind-the-scenes crew of "Anderson-Provis Films," APF for short, the production company that would be the forerunner of Century 21 Television And Cinema Productions, Mentorn Television And Cinema Productions, and the present-day Anderson Entertainment headed by Gerry's son Jamie Anderson. Among these were: * Anderson's earliest production partner, Arthur Provis himself, who was then the cinematographer of Supercar; * Reginald E. "Reg" Hill, then art director of Supercar and later one of the staff producers of Anderson's companies; * Desmond Saunders, a frequent director of Anderson's productions; * Barry Gray, Anderson's favourite composer; and * Derek Meddings, the foremost special-effects expert of Anderson's companies. Regular Cast Mike Mercury.png|Mike Mercury (Graydon Gould) Jimmy Gibson.png|Jimmy Gibson (Sylvia Anderson) Professer Popkiss.png|Professor Popkiss (1.George Mercell) (2.Cyril Shaps) Mitch.png|Mitch the Monkey (David Graham) Dr Beaker.png|Dr. Horatio Beaker (David Graham) Masterspy.png|Masterspy (1.George Murcell) (2.Cyril Shaps) Guest Cast Episodes (Production Order) Series One # Rescue # Amazonian Adventure # The Talisman Of Sargon # False Alarm # What Goes Up # Keep It Cool # Grounded # Jungle Hazard # High Tension # Island Incident # A Little Art # Ice-Fall # The Tracking Of Masterspy # Phantom Piper # Deep Seven # Pirate Plunder # Flight Of Fancy # Hostage # The Sunken Temple # Trapped In The Depths # Crash Landing # The Dragon Of Ho Meng # The Lost City # The Magic Carpet # The White Line # Supercar "Take One" Series Two # The Runaway Train # Precious Cargo # Operation Superstork # Hi-Jack # Calling Charlie Queen # Space For Mitch # The Sky's The Limit # 70-B-Lo # Atomic Witch Hunt # Jail Break # The Day That Time Stood Still # Transatlantic Cable # King Kool (Broadcast Order) Series One # Rescue # False Alarm # The Talisman Of Sargon # What Goes Up # Amazonian Adventure # Grounded # Keep It Cool # Jungle Hazard # High Tension # Island Incident # Ice-Fall # Phantom Piper # Pirate Plunder # A Little Art # Flight Of Fancy # Deep Seven # Hostage # The Sunken Temple # The Lost City # Trapped In The Depths # The Dragon Of Ho Meng # The Magic Carpet # Supercar "Take One" # Crash Landing # The Tracking Of Masterspy # The White Line Series Two # The Runaway Train # Precious Cargo # Operation Superstork # Hi-Jack # Calling Charlie Queen # Space For Mitch # Atomic Witch Hunt # 70-B-Lo # The Sky's The Limit # Jail Break # The Day That Time Stood Still # Transatlantic Cable # King Kool Merchandise Gallery Supercar_Annual_1962.png|Annual 1962 Supercar_Annual_1963.png|Annual 1963 TV_Favorite.png|TV Favorite Book Black_Diamond_Trail.png|On the Black Diamond Trail Trivia *Gerry Anderson went on record saying that he wanted to include black characters in one episode of Supercar, but network executives in America shot down that idea. Not till Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons would he achieve his goal of including black characters; even then, that programme was situated in the middle to late C.E. 2060s. External links *Supercar at Wikipedia *Supercar (1961) at Internet Movie Database. *The (un)Official Supercar Desktop Theme Site *The Black Rock One Archive Category:Supercar Category:Supermarionation Category:Television Series Category:Supermarionation Television Series